Mississippi Live and the Dirty Dirty not Going Down without a fight

Saturday, 13 February 2016 13:17
Richard Amery

If Pearl Jam’s and the Drive By Truckers’ tour busses collided en route to a Neil Young show in New Orleans, the result might sound like Mississippi Live and the Dirty Dirty’s CD “Going Down.”I remember their last CD being an upbeat CD that just made me want to drink heavily. That being said, the follow up “Going Down” is the morning after hangover.

There are a lot of slower, spooky blues and whiskey soaked, slower songs on the CD including the haunting swampy slide on “Bad , Bad Feeling.” “Country Boy” is equally haunted as is “Dead and Gone” which take away a little from upbeat rockers. It starts off slowly with “Trouble,” which could be a long lost Eagles track. It reminds me a little of “Peaceful Easy Feeling.”

The title track “Going Down” is more along the lines of their last CD, so it is a highlight which has elements of Steppenwolf because of the piercing organ and frontman Robert Connely Farr’s vocals. He comes by the swamp/blues influence honestly as he grew up across the street from a cotton gin mill in Bolton Mississippi before relocating to Vancouver in 2009.

another highlight is the straight ahead, power chord powered upbeat rocker “Hurtin’.”“It’s So Easy” is one of the more Neil Young/ Drive By Truckers influenced tracks and another highlight because of the gritty solo and the sing along chorus.Things start to get a little more menacing on the sixth track “Mexico,” another Drive By Truckers influenced mid tempo rocker featuring tortured arpeggios and haunted vocals.The overall effect is alcohol fueled rock with the unapologetic hangover afterwards.